Written by: Urja Parhi
The Interhall Arts Committee (IAC) has once again pulled off its biggest event of the year: Big Night Out (BNO). This event gives every hall at ANU the opportunity to put together a band (of up to twelve people) and perform in a music festival style tournament.
Performing to a sold out audience, twelve bands delivered dazzling performances that had everyone dancing the night away.
Amongst the bagpipes, leather jackets, and numerous Taylor Swift covers, Observer went backstage to get an insight into what happened behind the scenes at BNO.
Every band had a different theme and coordinated their outfits accordingly, but Burton and Garran (BNG) Hall took it one step further with a costume change before their final song.
One of the vocalists stated that “the quick change was a lot quicker than expected”, but was well worth it as it only fueled the audience’s cheers.
The audience was extremely fond of the BNG band, but the same cannot be said for the backstage crew and speaker company. Sparkly costume changes were not the only surprise this band had in store.
IAC told Observer that the speaker company was “quite angry” at the band for throwing confetti all over the stage as it got into the speakers. The following day, the band was asked to come back and clean up the remainders of their confetti surprise.
BNG’s final song was a mashup of “Crazy In Love” and “Touch The Sky” which samples the main riff from “Move On Up” by Curtis Mayfield. By pure coincidence, the Wright Hall band played the original song nine bands after BNG. 
Observer spoke to the Wright band directors about this funny coincidence.
“We didn’t know if people would know ‘Move On Up’, but we knew they would recognise the riff from ‘Touch The Sky’. As soon as I heard them play it, I got a text from the other director just saying, ‘Dude’.”
Wright Hall also performed a mashup of “Mia & Sebastian’s Theme” from La La Land and “As The World Caves In” by Matt Maltese. This mashup was unlike any other throughout the night, but had the audience and their flashlights swaying away.
One of the directors noted that he had “watched La La Land for the first time about two months ago. (The band) had already been practicing ‘As The World Caves In’ and (he) heard opportunity.”
Wright was not the only band covering a film-inspired song. Fenner Hall pleased all the Twilight fans in the audience with their cover of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole”. When asked if the song choice had anything to do with Twilight, one of the directors responded with, “It had everything to do with Twilight.”
“The other director suggested it, and as soon as he said, ‘Twilight’, I said, ‘Yes’”.
All the Twilight fans got their moment, but the Taylor Swift and Florence & The Machine fans were also spoiled throughout the night with over half of the bands playing covers of both artists.
Ursula Hall graced the audience with their cover of “Cruel Summer” followed by “Hot And Cold” by Katy Perry. However, the true show stopping moment was when one of the band members walked on stage with bagpipes.
One of the directors of the Ursula band stated that they “knew he played bagpipes because they did a talent competition. Very loud and very difficult to incorporate as they didn’t know how bagpipes worked until about three months ago.”
Surprisingly, Ursula was not the only band who incorporated bagpipes into their setlist, as UniLodge opened their performance with a rendition of “Shipping Up To Boston”, introducing the unorthodox BNO instrument from the beginning.
All the residential halls had the advantage of living in the same location, which made rehearsals and logistics much easier. However, this was not the case for Griffin Hall. Griffin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which meant there was no easy rehearsal space for the band to access.
One band member stated that they were “out on the streets” and “couldn’t have done it without the School of Music”.
Another band member also mentioned that a common text that kept getting sent out was, “When in the next three weeks can we have a single rehearsal?”
This was not the only issue Griffin faced, as the directors said they “ruled with an iron fist” to keep the band on track.
“We had three other members that, shall we say, were dealt with.”
Despite these issues, Griffin still put on a performance that had the whole crowd cheering and dancing along.
The victorious band, Burgmann College, took the audience back to 2013 with their rendition of Hozier’s “Take Me To Church”. The guitarist belted his solo on his knees and in turn had the crowd on their knees cheering him on. The band collectively agreed that it was their favourite song to perform, and by the crowd’s reaction, it sounded like it was a favourite among the audience too.
The setlist for BNO can make or break a band’s performance, which is why Yukeembruk Village made sure they covered all their bases by opening with “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence & The Machine, and finishing their set with “Killing In The Name” by Rage Against The Machine.
“We had a lot of fun and we hope that the crowd had just as much fun.”
When asked about any issues during rehearsals, a Yukeembruk band member stated that “every band has issues. Such is music. But the camaraderie that the band has had over the past month has been amazing.”
This year, the ANU School of Music gifted prizes to the bands that placed in the top three. The BNO journey is not quite over for these performers as each band will have the opportunity to participate in a recording session in the recording studio located in the School of Music.
The top five bands are listed here:
- Burgmann College
- Burton and Garran Hall
- Ursula Hall
- Yukeembruk Village
- Griffin Hall
Another year with a successful BNO. No rain, no COVID, just a night full of great music and some friendly competition. For the remainder of the year, IAC will have more events and competitions to see which college proves themselves to be the best of them all, of which more information, as well as the BNO and overall rankings, can be found here.
Graphics by: Luc Mattiske
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